Thieves Steal Foss School's Copper Piping

The Salem Police Department is investigating the theft of most of the copper piping from the furnace and heating system of a town building that just sold for $309,000 during an active public auction.

Salem Town Manager Keith Hickey said the theft was discovered Monday after the new owners of the Mary Foss School building did a thorough walkthrough of their new property.

The sale of the building recently closed, and the copper piping was intact before the school went up for auction in October, according to Hickey.

"It happened some time between the day of the auction in October and this morning," Hickey told selectmen Monday. "Somebody kicked in the lower panel of the rear door and used a cutting tool of some kind to cut the pipe out of the furnace room."

Hickey said police department told him that it would do "whatever it could to investigate" the incident, and Hickey requested authorization from selectmen Monday for the town to seek an insurance claim for the loss because the theft happened while the town had ownership of the structure.

The board unanimously granted Hickey's request.

Hickey said the town will "work with the new owners to try to make them as whole as we can with the insurance claim."

The vacant 89-year-old Foss School building, which has an assessed value of $410,000, was sold due to maintenance issues and a variety of crumbling structural features.

Before its closure, the Foss School building housed Salem's Human Services department as well as Rockingham Community Action, Greater Salem Caregivers and Servicelink.